THERE is something very new and rather strange in Bryant Park – an extraordinarily grand circus tent housing “Barnum’s Kaleidoscape,” which is producer Kenneth Feld’s eloquent answer to the opposition. It’s a great circus.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, and then, if possible beat ’em.

Ever since Montreal’s Cirque de Soleil decided to be to circus what Perrier was to water, coming up with the so-called designer or boutique circus, the old three-ringer of Feld’s, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, had started to look more square than circular.

There was also the opposition of the European-tradition American one-ring circuses, such as the touring Circus Flora and, more significantly, the not-for-profit Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center.

So – what to do? Feld and his creative team have very smartly combined the two, leaving out the arty thematic approach of the Canadians, and making it extraordinarily family-friendly.

And, as I said earlier, it’s a great circus. It really is. Director Raffaele De Ritis and designer Pascal Jacob have done a superb job in giving the old-time circus a new look, and the effect is magical and wondrous.

It starts before it starts with an advance show – music, jugglers, acrobats, mimes and such – in a tent outside the main tent. The performance tent itself seats 1,850 in plush comfort with no one more than 50 feet from the ring.

The heart of the show is the Italian clown David Larible, here teamed up with a fine French whiteface, classic auguste clown, Pipo. They make a fine duo.

Larible has gradually improved almost beyond recognition from his first New York seasons, which started nearly a decade ago. He has worked on his technique, his image, his style – and now he is a master clown fit to rank with the best of the past.

The performers are extraordinary – each and every act is special, with not only a special brilliance but also all of them exuding a certain friendly charm which brings a specific character to the entire show.

There is a gorgeous blonde trapezist, Sylvia Zerbini, who climbs down from her virtuoso trapeze to present a mysteriously beautiful liberty horse act. Then there are performing geese – I’ll never be able to eat a goose again – supervised by a matronly Olga Rogacheva, accompanied by a strongman acrobat Istvan Toth, who happens to be little more than two feet tall.

A young Spaniard, Picasso Jr., juggles red ping-pong balls with his mouth, which I’ve seen before, and then uses plates as a bewildering mixture of frisbee and boomerang, which I’ve never seen. Remarkable.

Equally remarkable is the sensational Bulgarian perch act of Alex and Lucy – he walks a tightwire with her perched on a 12-foot pole balanced on his forehead – and Guy Theron who with his glamorous partner Regina Bouglione has a sharp-shooting crossbow act that should send William Tell back to his opera. Both acts are incredible.

There’s music (a really funny British act called Nuts and Bolts as well as Rik Albani’s orchestra with Linda Hudes’ original score) and acrobats and tumblers galore.